Ramblings of an Emergency Physician in Texas

American citizens are unprepared for a terrorist attack or natural disaster, and there are no significant differences among military, retired military and civilian families regarding preparedness for disasters, according to a new survey released during the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in New Orleans.

Drs. Richard Dagrosa and John McManus, both emergency physicians in the military, surveyed people in San Antonio, Texas, including patients in two military hospital emergency departments. The survey results show no significant differences among military, retired military and civilian families in regard to having a disaster plan, designating a meeting place or having a disaster kit. Only half the families in the survey had prepared any kind of disaster plan, and only one-third possessed a disaster kit.

This surprises me, a little. We have all of the above, and I wonder why anyone wouldn’t.

Got your cell phone handy? Take a moment right now to put “ICE” by the names of the people you’d want called in case of emergency.That’s what “ICE” stands for — “in case of emergency.”

…

McKenna’s team gave surveys to 423 emergency department patients.Most of the 285 patients with cell phones didn’t know about ICE. Only 76 said they had heard of ICE and 26 said they had already put ICE in their cell phones.

That’s actually pretty good! Show me a third of people who hear about a good idea but then act on it, and that’s remarkable.

Most of the patients who had their cell phones with them agreed to learn about ICE while in the emergency department.Afterwards, 129 patients agreed to have ICE programmed into their cell phones while they were in the emergency department.

Why not, there’s not much else to do.

Okay, it’s in mine, and my parents’ (I put it there); how about yours?